BOOK
REVIEW What it means to be
Lao Post-war Laos: The
Politics of Culture, History and Identity
by Vatthana Pholsena
Reviewed by
Bertil Lintner
Who exactly is a Lao and
why? Ethnically and linguistically, it would
appear to be the wet-rice cultivating inhabitants
of the Mekong River Valley and other lowland areas
who speak various Tai languages and dialects.
But in an attempt to foster national unity
in an ethnically diverse country - Laos' official
population census lists 49 different ethnic
groups, while another,
independent survey reveals a myriad 236 peoples
and tribes - they are just the Lao Lum, literally
"Lao of the plains".
Ethnic groups practicing
slash-and-burn agriculture on hillsides and
speaking Austro-Asiatic and Mon-Khmer languages
are called Lao Theung, or "Lao of the mountain
slopes". At even higher altitudes, the Lao Sung,
or the "Lao of the mountaintops", cultivate hill
paddies as well as opium poppies and speak
Hmong-
Yao and Sino-Tibetan languages.
Together the Lao Lum comprise some 56% of the
total population of 5.3 million, the Lao Theung
34%, and the Lao Sung 9%.
This
classification was initiated in the 1950s by the
then Royal Lao Government and is still being used
today in the communist-run Lao People's Democratic
Republic, although its founder, Kaysone
Phomvihane, once deemed ethnic categorization to
be anti-revolutionary. He emphasized national
unity based on the conflicting concepts of
cultural diversity and political control of
ethnicity. In addition to the "indigenous"
peoples, there are also large Vietnamese
communities in the towns of the Mekong Valley as
well as Chinese and a sprinkling of Indians.
Vatthana Pholsena's new study of Lao
identity examines how the post-1975 communist
regime has attempted to "construct a legitimizing
nationalist discourse by imposing its own cultural
preferences, view of history, and ethnic
classification", or what makes multi-ethnic Laos a
unified nation. She comes from one of Laos' most
prominent political families - the Pholsenas - but
grew up in France and earned her PhD from the
University of Hull in the United Kingdom. She is
now an assistant professor at the National
University of Singapore.
With her own
diverse background, Vatthana is well placed to
analyze objectively the issue of Lao identity, and
she does it extremely well. She outlines how the
communists initially tried to eradicate "old"
identities and replace them with a "socialist"
one. But as Laos' experiment with socialism led to
economic collapse - and the reintroduction of free
trade and private enterprise - other traditional
Lao values and beliefs also came back to life, but
in a somewhat different shape and form. Buddhism
and traditional Lao festivals as well as respect
for the old royal family have been revived -
alongside a cult of Kaysone and lavish
celebrations on December 2, the anniversary of the
day when the communists seized power in 1975.
And, in many ways, it is working. Laos
today is a more unified state than it has ever
been, or, as a member of one of the smaller ethnic
groups in the country told Vatthana, "Our race is
Lao, our blood is Lao, and our nationality is
Lao." Educated members of the national minorities
do not necessarily perceive their ethnic identity
as one opposed to the majority.
At the
same time, there are contradictory aspects of the
identity of non-Tai-speaking Lao. The regime now
calls for modernity and development, she argues,
and therefore the question of identity and culture
"is closely tied to the issue of overcoming
'backwardness'". The revolutionary war in the
1960s and early 1970s turned "backward tribes"
into "revolutionaries" and "patriots". Seen in a
broader perspective, it shows how political and
social developments in any multi-ethnic country
can create new identities.
Or, as
Australian Lao scholar Martin Stuart-Fox says
about the book: "Post-war Laos makes not
only a contribution to the study of Lao identity,
society and history, but also more broadly to the
vexed problem of multiple identities among the
peoples of Southeast Asia." Ordinary readers may
find Vatthana's study heavy on the theoretical,
yet it not only sheds light on nation-building in
a small, little-known, multi-ethnic country, but
is also a major contribution to the understanding
of the complex issue of ethnic identity in
Southeast Asia.
Significantly, she also
builds on the scholarship of leading Lao expert
Grant Evans, who has written widely on Lao
culture, society and identity, shining new light
on the ideology of Lao nationalism through
examination of the relationships between majority
and minority populations. She also nicely puts
into cultural, historical and political context
the often overlooked role of educated members of
ethnic-minority groups.
The end of the
Cold War did not lead to a new world order, an
international community at peace with itself where
social and political stability are the norm.
Instead, ethnic conflicts, which had remained
dormant for decades, have resurfaced, and
Southeast Asia has become one of the most
ethnically volatile parts of the world. There may
be no significant ethnic conflict in Laos, apart
from the government's decades-old low-intensity
conflict with Hmong rebels. On the contrary, given
its ethnic diversity, it remains surprisingly
peaceful and harmonious, and Vatthana's book
stands out as an excellent case study of the
formation and definition of national identity and
how state policies can shape a nation.
She
argues that the legacy of pre-colonial Buddhist
ideologies of ethnic identity, combined with the
current regime's obsession with state control, "do
not provide propitious conditions for the
emergence of a liberal conception of
multiculturalism". Cultural diversity may grow
stronger if, or when, Laos becomes more
democratic. That happened in Indonesia after the
fall of Suharto in 1998, and it may happen in the
future in Myanmar, another ethnically diverse
country in the region. Or perhaps even one day in
Laos.
Bertil Lintner is a former
correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review, where he wrote extensively on Lao politics
and economics. He is currently a writer with
Asia-Pacific Media Services.
Post-war Laos: The Politics of Culture,
History and Identity by Vatthana Pholsena.
Nias Press, Copenhagen; Silkworm Books, Chiang
Mai; Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore, 2006. ISBN 981-230-355-3. Price US$18,
256 pages.
(Copyright 2006 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing
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Yao and Sino-Tibetan languages.
Together the Lao Lum comprise some 56% of the
total population of 5.3 million, the Lao Theung
34%, and the Lao Sung 9%. 
